NATIONAL NEWS FOR WEEK COMMENCING DEC 16 2018.
IN OUR 23rd YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS

THE CHRISTMAS ALARA EDITION. Join ALARA President Shirley Tregellas
VK5YL along with the 3 Elves...or should that be the 3 'L's',
VK4SWE Lyn Battle, VK7QP Linda Luther who is the ALARA Vice President,
Lesley Smit VK5LOL and also we'll hear from Heather Embee KB3TZD,
Jeanne Socrates VE0JS/MM and Karen Merlo VK3FKLP.

THESE STORIES & MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE
WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA 2018
AND FOR WEEK OF DECEMBER 16

The VK Contest Club VK4 chapter are hosting an annual get together
at Ipswich Jets - For all radio amateurs to enjoy an afternoon of
camaraderie.

VK Contest Club (VK1CC) is a national organisation for all contest
minded hams in Australia with no entry fee and all amateur operators
welcome.

To RSVP follow the link at vkcc.com

(Trent VK4TS)

The Great Eastern Fly-In - 12-13th January 2019

What happens at the Fly-In

The Great Eastern Fly-In is a unique Australian aviation event.

Pilots, their families and friends, Fly-In from all over Australia,
to enjoy a great summer holiday with a difference at Evans Head.

You can expect... NO ADMISSION CHARGE! Howzat!
Shuttle bus to Evans Head town centre, beaches, local sites and
off-site accommodation. On-site catering, special dinner offer,
local food markets, as well as access to local cafes and restaurants.

Joy Flight for everybody's taste! Fly the family over the beach
and spot the dolphins, feel the breeze in your hair, thrill seekers
fly upside-down and, for that once in a life-time adventure,
experience the raw power of a genuine Warbird.

The Great Eastern Fly-In is a community event for all aviators and
the general public, with plenty of opportunities to view aircraft and
talk to pilots.

Pilots please note there is NO Air Traffic Control, and for Air band
transmissions north of Evans Head check with CASA and or Airservices
Australia.

info@greateasternflyin.com

http://www.greateasternflyin.com/

(sarc newsletter)

Scale-out layer 2 processor

This is complete with an eEmbedded envelope-tracking Chebyshev-filter
and utilises a re-entrant logic circuit complete with a
field-programmable jitter-free ring-modulator.

Want to find out more on this 'just in time for Christmas 'Gizmo?'

I'll reveal all later in this the WIA National News when I look at
'Media-Watch.'

INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club,
ARRL, RAC, NZART AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE & the World Wide sources of
the WIA.

NEW ZEALAND

Their regulator, RSM, have agreed to extend the one year 60m trial
for a further six months to give more time for information gathering.

ZL hams who already hold a sub-licence from NZART do not need to do
anything. The trial will now finish on July 24th 2019.

Hams who wish to operate on 60m must have a sub-licence from NZART

nzart.org.nz/info/60m/

YL SAILS TOWARD NEW WORLD RECORD

Our good friends over at Amateur Radio Newsline, edited by KD2GUT
Caryn Eve Murray says a YL on a ham radio journey is looking to set
the record of a lifetime. She's doing it solo.

To all appearances, retired math teacher Jeanne Socrates VE 0 JS, is
alone aboard her sailing vessel the S/V Nereida as she makes her
third attempt at setting a record. Jeanne is already the oldest
woman to circumnavigate the globe solo nonstop and unassisted -- and
is the first woman to do so from North America.

Now 76, the experienced sailor simply wants to be the oldest person
to accomplish that feat.

Yes, to all appearances she is indeed alone, but Newsline got on
board with her briefly on 20 meters with the help of a Skype patch
from her friend Jim Millner WB2REM.

JEANNE: I'm pretty pleased with my progress, in fact.

She was, at the time of the QSO, 80 miles north/northwest of Ducie
Island in the Pacific Ocean, at a good pace into her 8-month journey
and this week was sailing towards the Falklands after having 'rounded
the Horn.'

When the sun shines brightly, Jeanne has the benefit of solar power.
She has a little generator on board too - but for a sailboat like the
Nereida, the real power comes, of course, from riding the wind.

Jeanne's days are full. She makes her meals, she writes in her blog,
she downloads critical weather information and maintains the boat in
operating condition, even keeping barnacles from slowing her sojourn.

There is, of course, also the radio to turn to, all 125 watts of HF
signal - and she does that often.

I spend a lot of time actually, it's really great for me to have
the radio. I've not been able to make the morning contacts I normally
do when I am further north. I get onto various nets. Some of those
contacts come up to me in the daytime and that seems to be good. In
fact I made contact yesterday with Victoria Canada where I left from.

He came up strong 17 meters which is great. And then other friends
from the 7155 group and another group, we make contact from time to
time and occasionally I am able to get a hold of my friends up on the
west coast. There is a group there around 7147 in the morning around
sunrise. I am able to talk to them occasionally. It has been a really
really good thing for me to have the ham radio to make connections
like that.

JEANNE: Good bye for now, 73.

JAPAN

We report on a Silent Key: a YL who was also a successful artist.

Though many fans of Japanese manga comics came to know Momoko Sakura
as a pre-eminent artist and illustrator, amateur radio operators knew
her by her call sign JI2EIT. The well-known creator of a popular
anime (ANN-NIM-MAY) series on Fuji TV became a Silent Key several
months back.

Momoko got her radio license while still in school and later
illustrated covers of Japan's CQ Ham Radio magazine. Her animated TV
series, which was about a curious little girl named Maruko, even
featured amateur radio in one of its episodes, with Maruko asking to
obtain her license.

The hit show, which made its debut in 1990, is still in production
and local news reports in JA indicate it will continue.

Momoko Sakura died of cancer. She was only 53.

CHINA

In the latest round of a tit-for-tat legal stoush between Apple and
Qualcomm, China has moved to ban sales of most iPhone models.

Qualcomm filed its latest lawsuit in China recently alleging Apple
has infringed on two of its patents. The patents that allow people
to edit and resize photos and to manage apps via a touch screen
affect the iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus,
iPhone 8, iPhone 8Plus and iPhone X.

Qualcomm's lawsuit predates Apple's release of the latest iPhone XS,
iPhone XS Plus and iPhone XR that can still go on sale in China - for
now.

The existing ban will cover 10 to 15 per cent of all current iPhones
in China.

What the current legal injunction imposed last week means is still
unclear. Stereo.net.au say Apple insists all its iPhone models are
on sale in China.

ROMANIA

Santa Claus from Romania

Santa Claus and his Ham Radio elves are coming back to YO again
for the third consecutive time.

The YP-XMAS callsigns are already a tradition and the Romanian
RadioClub Association (ARR) aims again to give to the Radio Community
moments of joy around the their Winter Holiday Time.

The beautiful Santa Claus story on radio waves started by Finland's
radio amateurs (OH9SCL in 1986 and later the OF9X team) has been
taken over in recent years by different colleagues from several
European countries.

In this context, the initiator of the Romanian team, Sorin YO 2 MSB,
put his traditional Santa clothes, a white beard, and three years ago
he went looking for the elves eager for such a radio event. And they
rushed to say "yes" to the call of Santa and began to prepare their
necessary radio equipment. Therefore, on December 01st, 2016, the
first calls with YP-XMAS were heard in frequencies.

Today, in 2018, the largest team with activators are in all the
districts of YO

Read more at
https://www.eurao.org/en/node/944

FRANCE

French ham radio licence fee

REF reports the Finance committee of the Senate has tabled an
amendment to the French Finance Act 2019 concerning the annual
amateur radio license fee

The annual fee in France is currently 45.73 euros and yields about
600,000 euros.

The amendment says that collecting the license fee costs 409.6% of
the amount recovered and proposes "removing this tax".

REF notes "amendment has yet to pass to the Assembly and perhaps to
the Joint Committee, it seems that there has been an echo of our
proposal.

( see this link in Google English https://tinyurl.com/FranceREF )

CANADA

Artist made a radio out of a kitchen sink

The IEEE Spectrum magazine reports on Amanda Dawn Christie's work
which commemorates the fading glory of shortwave radio

Some artists work in oils, or marble. Amanda Dawn Christie works in
radio. Not radio in the sense of performing on air. But radio in the
sense of the giant cultural and technological phenomenon that is
broadcasting, and specifically shortwave broadcasting.

For decades, shortwave was the only way to reach a global audience
in real time. Broadcasters such as the BBC World Service and
Voice of America used it to project "soft power." But as the
Internet grew, interest in shortwave diminished.

Christie's art draws from shortwave's history, representing it in
sculpture, performance, photography, and film. Her focus is the
life of the Radio Canada International (RCI) transmitter complex,
located in Sackville, New Brunswick, near Christie's hometown.

The transmitter was in operation from the 1940s until 2012.

"Those towers were always just a part of the landscape that I grew up
around," says Christie. It took a radio-building workshop to spark
her interest: "I built a radio out of a toilet-paper tube.... I
thought I did a great job because I picked up Italian radio.
It turned out I did not I was just really close to this
international shortwave site."

Read the full story and watch video Requiem for Radio :
Full Quiet Flutter at

The Orange County Register reports one of the FBI's first female
dispatchers continues to bust stereotypes from her Fullerton living
room

As a teenager in Los Angeles, Vi fell in love with ham radio and
became one of the few women to enter what was then considered a man's
world of electronics.

She heard about amateur radio's annual event where hams gather,
set up antennas and invite the public. In 1946, Dad agreed to take
her to Baldwin Hills where ham operators carried their rigs.

"Are you a ham?" one gentleman asked.
"No," Barrett confessed.
"Would you like to be?"
"Oh, would I!"

At that moment, Barrett found her first mentor.

Then she found another. And another.

1947, and she sat next to the ham radio operator who patched
Thor Heyerdahl's location aboard the Kon-Tiki to Washington, D.C.

The following year, at age 17, she made her way to the Federal
Building in downtown Los Angeles and took her ham test. She was the
only female in the room.

A few hours later, she walked out with a ham radio license,
call letters W6CBA.

Read the full article at
https://www.ocregister.com/2018/09/20/one-of-fbis-first-female-dispatchers-continues-to-bust-stereotypes-from-her-fullerton-living

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

HAM RADIO OPERATIONAL NEWS - IT'S A CONTACT SPORT

All major Australian contests, rules and results, are on the
Contest Section of the WIA website.

wia.org.au/members/contests/about

2019

Inaugural "Green Keys Night" Set for New Year's Day, January 1

NZART Portable Activity Day - New Year's Day

ARRL RTTY Roundup January 5 - 6
This contest will, for the first time, permit the use of FT8 as well
as traditional RTTY.

Summer VHF /UHF Field Day. Saturday 12 Sunday 13 January

John Moyle Field Day is March 17 and 18

20th Harry Angel Memorial Sprint May 4

Trans-Tasman Low-Band Contest July 20

VK Remembrance Day Contest is August 17-18

--------------

LONG ISLAND CLUB HOSTS 2 SEASONAL ON-AIR EVENTS

In New York, the Great South Bay Amateur Radio Club believes there's
no place like being with hams for the holidays -- so they're hosting
an event to celebrate the season.

A 12 Days of Christmas Special Event Station.

This special event started on Friday, December 14th and runs for...
yes... 12 days, which would make it end Christmas day.

Each day has its own special 1x1 callsign, like W2P is the Partridge
in a Pear Tree station; or the W2L Nine Ladies Dancing station.

THROUGH THE DX WINDOW

TM64YL achieved 5,000 contacts

A DXpedition by 14 women notched up 5,000 contacts using the
callsign TM 6 4YL from the island of Noirmoutier IOTA EU-064

Iceland's national amateur radio society, the IRA, reports
"TM 6 4YL was a call sign YL DX expedition that was QRV from the
island of Noirmoutier in France during August 25-31."

Elvira, IV 3 FSG was active as E 44 YL from Palestine through the
past week, SSB, RTYY and FT8 so if you did work her, QSL via
IK 3 GES.

YL operator Chie 7L3PFH will be QRV from Saipan in the Mariana
Islands as KH 0 TG from 26th December - 1st January.
She will be on 160 - 20m CW and SSB.
QSL manager is JL1UTS.

Good news for ZT1T

The South African state-owned power company has given an undertaking
that there will be no rolling blackouts until the New Year
(03 January 2019). This means that ZT1T will be operating as usual
between Xmas and New Year without the threat of power being
switched off without warning mid-operation!

ZT1T (unique prefix) will be used to celebrate the 8th Xmas after
the rescue of Susan, ZS1AFR and husband Tom, ZS1AFS from the
South Atlantic in February 2011. They had to abandon their yacht
when the fitting holding the forestay to the stem head of their
yacht broke. They were rescued and returned home via the UK.

This year operation will be on 40m, 20m, 15m, and 10m.

NET ADVICE

Ann Renton Memorial Net this Tuesday

One of the friendliest radio nets in the land happens Tuesday evening
December 25th from 7-30pm (TRUE TIME) on the Townsville UHF Repeater.

It's the Ann Renton Memorial Net Christmas Night Bumper Edition!

The net is open to young and old, YL or OM and is a golden
opportunity for anyone who needs practice on-air to go onto the net
as 2nd operator.

The net will also be accessible via the VK4TUB AllStar Link 46740
and the VK4TUB EchoLink node 837230

CQ-DATV 66 magazine is now available for free download from
https://www.cq-datv.mobi/66.php

This is a free monthly magazine and the previous 65 copies are
available from https://www.cq-datv.mobi/ebooks.php

Alternatively you can read it at the online magazine store
https://issuu.com/cq-datv/docs/cq-datv66

If you like what you read, why not join the CQ-DATV Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/285807174898375/ or if you would
like to contribute to the next issue please send your pictures,
copy or ideas to editor@cq-datv.mobi

At the top of the news this week I made mention of the scale-out layer
2 processor.

What on earth is it?

Well surely you have you ever heard people using technobabble or
electronics engineering speak with phrases that sound impressive
but mean nothing - you too can have some fun with an online
technobabble jargon generator.

It is amazing how much jargon and technobabble is used within
electronic engineering. Sometimes people can want to sound impressive
by using all the latest electronics jargon. How often does all this
jargon sound a little forced, often one can ask if they know what
it actually means?

If you want to join them and have a laugh, use the electronics
jargon or technobabble generator. It randomly generates some really
impressive sounding electronics engineering phrases that you can drop
into conversation and have no fear of being contradicted because they
mean absolutely nothing!!

SUBMITTING a report? go to
http://www.wia.org.au/members/protecting/intruderreport/

INTRUDER NETS
Friday 0730 UTC 7.065.5 with VK4CEU David.

Amateur exclusive frequencies where any non-amateur signal is definitely an
intruder.

Amateur HF Spectrum world wide
7.050 to 7.100
14.000 to 14.250
14.250 to 14.350 No broadcasters
21.000 to 21.450
24.890 to 24.990
28.000 to 29.700

BROADCASTERS INTRUDING ON EXCLUSIVE AMATEUR RADIO FREQUENCIES

The International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 Monitoring System
(IARUMS) reports that Radio Hargeisa in Somaliland has returned to
7 120 kHz after a break of several weeks, while Radio Eritrea has
been reported on 7 140 and 7 180 kHz.

Radio Sudan has been transmitting on 7 205 kHz with excessive
splatter, IARUMS said.

German telecommunications authorities have filed official complaints.

IARUMS has also reported digital signals attributed to the
Israeli Navy on 7 107 and 7 150 kHz. In addition, a Russian military
F1B signal was observed on 7 179 kHz.

A Russian over-the-horizon radar has returned to 20 metres on
14 335 - 14 348 kHz.

IARUMS reported digital signals from the Polish military daily on
7 001.8 kHz where Amateur Radio has a worldwide primary allocation.
Telecommunications officials in Germany filed a complaint.

IARUMS has received reports of short "beeps" exactly 1 second apart,
as well as frequency hopping between 10.108 & 10.115kHz and
18.834 and 18.899kHz. The signals are believed to emanate from a
site near Chicago associated with an FCC-licensed experimental
operation involved with low-latency exchange trading on HF.

September 2019- Scandinavian YL Radio Operators Convention
will be in Norway LA8FOA is your contact
Ingrid lullen55@gmail.com

YLRL AWARDS SCHOLARSHIPS TO 3 PROMISING AMATEURS

The Young Ladies' Radio League has just awarded three promising
amateurs with scholarships to continue their studies as we hear
from Amateur Radio Newline's Heather Embee KB3TZD.

"Readers of YL-Harmonics, the official publication of the Young
Ladies' Radio League, were greeted by three smiling faces on the
cover of the group's November-December issue: Jordyn Mann, W1KXJ;
Anna Veal, W0ANT; and Trina Boyce, KI6GZG all have good reason to
smile.

They have all been named YLRL Scholarship winners receiving gifts
that honour three Silent Keys:

Ethyl Smith K4LMB;
Martha Wessel K0EPE and
Mary Lou Brown NM7N.

Jordyn is a computer science major at MIT and has been an intern at
NASA. Anna, a graduate of the STEM high school in Highlands Ranch,
Colorado, plans to study computer science at the University of
Colorado. She is also a past winner of Amateur Radio Newlines'
Young Ham of the Year award. Trina, who is a doctoral candidate at
Colorado Technical University, has two master's degrees and teaches
online as an adjunct professor at Brigham Young University.

Applications will be open soon for the 2019 scholarships and are due
by April. For more information check the website of the Foundation
for Amateur Radio at farweb.org

Meanwhile, congratulations to this year's winners.

For Amateur Radio Newsline (and the WIA) I'm Heather Embee KB3TZD.

WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FINAL FRONTIER

NASA names Holly Ridings new Chief Flight Director

NASA has named Holly Ridings its new chief flight director, making
her the first woman to lead the elite group that directs human
spaceflight missions from the Mission Control Centre at NASA's
Johnson Space Centre in Houston.

Director of Flight Operations Brian Kelly selected Ridings to replace
Norm Knight, who has held the position since 2012. Knight now is the
deputy director of Flight Operations.

"Holly has proven herself a leader among a group of highly talented
flight directors," Kelly said. "I know she will excel in this unique
and critical leadership position providing direction for the safety
and success of human spaceflight missions. She will lead the team
during exciting times as they adapt to support future missions with
commercial partners and beyond low-Earth orbit."

In her new role, Ridings will manage the group of 32 active flight
directors and flight directors-in-training who oversee a variety of
human spaceflight missions involving the International Space Station,
including integrating American-made commercial crew spacecraft into
the fleet of vehicles servicing the orbiting laboratory, as well as
Orion spacecraft missions to the Moon and beyond.

Ridings, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical
engineering from Texas A&M University in 1996. She joined NASA in
1998 as a flight controller in the thermal operations group.
She was selected as a flight director in 2005.
Since then, she has served as the lead flight director for several
missions including International Space Station mission Expedition
16 in 2007-2008, Space Shuttle Program mission STS-127 in 2009, and
the first SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft mission to the space station
in 2012.

WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- IOTA
www.iota-world.org

AF008

Whether you are working on a kit build or troubleshooting an antenna
issue, patience is always a virtue that pays off for amateur radio
operators. Then, of course, you have Luigi, IV3XNF, for whom patience
proved a virtue for QSL cards.

He only discovered recently that his 1993 contact with FT4WD on
Crozet Island was apparently overlooked - so quietly in fact that
Luigi himself believed that he had actually got the QSL card from
long ago before discovering that no, it apparently was never sent.

Realizing this, Luigi wrote to the QSL manager Norbert F6AXX and then
settled back into his wait.

Late last month, a jubilant Luigi posted a picture of the card on
Twitter which featured penguin after penguin after penguin on the
subantarctic island - and the proud 5 and 9 signal report for the
SSB contact with a French operator named Christian who held the call
sign FD1NOG at the time.

His contact with IOTA AF008 has thus been confirmed at last.

As Luigi wrote on Twitter, after 25 years: "never say never."

(ARNewsLine)

WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ILLW
https://illw.net/

ILLW / 100

The 100th entry for the 2019 International Lighthouse Lightship
Weekend, ILLW, has just been received from DL1SWB who will be
operating from Dahmeshoved Lighthouse in Germany.

A new report has found more than 2 million young people in the
UK engaged with education and outreach programmes linked to
Tim Peake's Principia Mission to space. The report highlights
the role of ARISS and amateur radio during the mission

The UK Space Agency ran a 3 million education campaign alongside
the mission to the International Space Station, which blasted off
three years ago, to inspire a greater interest and understanding
of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as well as
space.

January 24-28 VK4 TARC Australia Day Long Week Family Radio Camp
Jan 24-28 (tarc)

February 24 VK2 - Wyong Field Day Feb 24 (vk2kfu)

March 23-24 VK7 - Meet the Voice event at Ross
March 23-24 (vk7news)

APRIL 13 VK4 - Redfest 2019 April 13 (vk4tfn)

"Merry Xmas from the Redcliffe and Districts Radio Club here
in South East Queensland.
This is Robert Thomson VK4TFN.
On behalf of us all, I would like to wish you all a safe and
happy Xmas and New Year holiday.
Please don't forget REDFEST to be held on the 13th April 2019.
We will raffle a very special prize.
As the event draws closer, listen for further announcements.
Also, go to:
www.redclifferadioclub.org.au
You can also find us on FACEBOOK.
So, if you plan to drive, plan not to drink and
if you plan to drink, well then plan not to drive.
Merry Xmas, drive carefully and we'll see you all,
in the New Year.
Thank you and 73"

Heidi VK3FHID and Jenny VK3WQ are leading the team who are planning
an eventful weekend. This team is meeting regularly and are looking
forward to seeing you in Bendigo.

Submitting news items

A reminder when supplying HamFest info we obviously can't plug
commercial traders "on air", but we at the WIA will put your
supporters in this text edition "no worries."

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
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nationalnews@wia.org.au and don't JUST send url's links,
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To submit audio read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on
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We would appreciate items no longer than 2 minutes in length as we
only have a half hour.

Remember the sooner you submit material the more the likelihood of it
being broadcast in the very next edition of WIA National News.
Each item will only be broadcast once, if you want a couple of
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Thanks to our dedicated band of broadcast volunteers who utilize
their time and equipment in bringing you this weekly broadcast.
Who and where are they?
http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/where/

The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of interest to
active amateurs residing in Australia and the globe.

We strongly encourage membership in the Wireless Institute of
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Opinions expressed in "WIANews" are those of the writers who submit
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